Hagan ad hits Tillis for calling ObamaCare 'a great idea'

Sen. Kay Hagan's (D-N.C.) first ad attacks potential GOP opponent Thom Tillis for comments appearing to support ObamaCare and for his former staffers’ affairs with lobbyists.

The radio spot released Thursday uses a clip from an interview Tillis gave in February saying ObamaCare “is a great idea.” It cuts out the rest of his sentence, which in full was, “It’s a great idea that can’t be paid for.”

Outside groups have attacked Hagan for voting for ObamaCare, and Tillis, Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, calls for repealing it.

“After more than $10 million has been spent by outside groups looking to defeat Kay, it’s time that Tillis’ record is set straight,” the Hagan campaign said in a press release.

The ad then turns to affairs that came to light in 2012 between two Tillis staffers and lobbyists. One of the staffers was his chief of staff, who was sharing an apartment with Tillis at the time. Tillis says he wasn’t aware of the affair.

The ad criticizes the fact that the staffers received severance pay when they resigned.

“Instead of firing them, Tillis arranged for golden parachutes, paid for by taxpayers, worth over $19,000," the ad says. “Our tax dollars bailing out the indiscretions of Thom Tillis's staff. Those may be values, but they're not North Carolina's."

Hagan is one of the most vulnerable Democratic senators in 2014 as the GOP fights to win control of the Senate.

The effort could be at attempt to hurt Tillis ahead of the May 6 GOP primary election. If no candidate receives 40 percent of the vote that day, he'd be forced into a time-consuming and costly runoff.